Dive Brief:
- Wix.com, the website builder company, has no plans to buy any TV advertising in 2018, including around the Super Bowl, where it's run buzzy commercials since 2015, according to a report in Ad Age. The brand stopped buying TV ads in Q2 of this year as part of a major shift in its strategy, as it previously increased TV spending from $18 million in 2015 to $28 million in 2016, per Kantar data cited by Ad Age.
- Wix will now focus on digital campaigns and influencer marketing as opposed to TV as it looks to find more specific audiences where they are most easily targeted. The company has already run influencer campaigns with the model Karlie Kloss, YouTubers Rhett and Link and the comedian James Veitch, Ad Age said. The brand has also expanded its in-house marketing.
- The shift to digital-only marketing occurred after Wix introduced its Code product in June, which is catered to more advanced web designers and developers. CMO Omer Shai told Ad Age the brand is mulling over whether to make a digital push for the Super Bowl next year. A spot from its most recent Super Bowl campaign, starring the actors Gal Gadot and Jason Statham, is available to view below:
Dive Insight:
Wix's spurning of TV advertising emphasizes an emerging industry trend toward more targeted and personalized marketing that can be difficult to achieve on traditional channels. The website-builder company built a lot of buzz for its brand over the last three years through often star-studded Super Bowl commercials, but now that it's a more established name and is focusing on more complex products that don't necessarily appeal to the average consumer, digital tactics, including influencer marketing, are taking a greater stake in its strategy.
TV has long been the gold standard for broad brand awareness campaigns, but the landscape is feeling strain as ratings continue to dip due to cord-cutting and the rise in popularity of digital streaming alternatives. Even as audiences shrink, TV inventory, especially around destination viewing events like the Super Bowl, continues to command high rates that might make less business sense to more niche companies like Wix.
Influencers, on the other hand, are a more relevant fit for the brand, as many content creators trying to kickstart careers as influencers might opt to create a website via Wix's service. Still, some marketers are heading in the opposite direction as Wix as digital channels continue to prove rife with non-transparency, brand safety issues and murky marketing measurement. Procter & Gamble in May announced plans to invest more ad dollars into linear TV and, just a month earlier, fast-food chain Taco Bell said it was also spending less on digital and more on TV for the year.
